Reference no: EM132862644

Stephanie has recently been hired as a department head at a pharmaceuticals company and she was having a hard time dealing with Rob, one of the employees in her department. Rob had a PhD in biochemistry, whereas Stephanie had a background in business. From what Stephanie had observed, Rob performed extremely well when he was working on highly complex tasks that put his technical expertise to the test, but he just didn't understand the business side of the company and the need to be more profit driven. And, she was pretty sure that she wasn't the only one who thought this way. She sensed that other department heads felt the same about scientists in their departments. She couldn't understand why the scientists resisted doing anything that departed from their accustomed scientific routines. When Stephanie raised the issue with Rob, Rob gave her a long drawn out technical explanation of the scientific work that was carried out in the department, and angrily told Stephanie that she should stop trying to mess with a system that had worked for many years and wasn't broken.

Frustrated at the situation but not willing to give up, Stephanie decided to see if she could find out more about why Rob had such animosity toward her. Through her investigation, she found out that Rob had applied for Stephanie's job, but had been passed over for the promotion. Ever since, Rob's attitude had been deteriorating and he had been negatively influencing the other scientists in the department too. In fact, Rob had made it plain to everyone that he had disagreed with the company's choice to bring in a non-scientist from outside the company to be the department head and that he thought that the only reason he was passed over for the promotion was some misguided idea about employment equity. In his mind, Rob had demonstrated his value to the company and he deserved to be rewarded. Seeing that Rob was a leader within the group, Stephanie tried to make peace with him by complimenting his work and asking for his input, but Rob didn't want to hear it: "You'll never understand our work. You and your MBA. You have no idea how to do science and you don't understand how much getting it right means to us! We're talking about helping people when they're sick. We're methodical and we follow protocols. Why can't you see that we don't need to change?" Stephanie was beginning to second-guess her choice to accept the job. She had really been looking forward to putting some of the change management knowledge that she'd acquired during her MBA into practice, but Rob's resistance was seriously getting in the way. Not only that, but if she couldn't find ways to increase profits somehow then the profit-sharing plan that the company had talked so much about during her interview wouldn't be worth much. And with the modest salary that she'd negotiated, she had been counting on the extra bonus.

Stephanie decided to call Rob into her office one last time to try and smooth things over. She opened the meeting by saying:

"Thanks for meeting with me. I've been thinking about how we work together, and I have to tell you, I'm not happy. My sense is that you aren't either and you seem to be spreading your negativity to the other scientists. I'm not exactly sure how to fix it. That's why I want us to talk now. I know you are talented and that you offer a lot to the company, but our previous conversations have shown me that the feeling is not mutual. I don't like the way you've responded to me on a number of occasions, and I won't stand for it anymore."
Stephanie continued: "You may be technically superior to me, but I'm your manager and it's my job to make sure that we run the department in a profitable manner. You have to agree that we can't develop new drugs without profits and I know that you agree that this is part of our mission. You need to come around to my way of thinking or else you're going to bring me and the whole department down with you. What can I do to help make this happen?"

Rob didn't hesitate in his response: "Nothing. You're a woman and you're not a scientist. You just don't get it and I see no reason why I should help you try." Then, he walked out in a huff. Stephanie was shocked. So much for the progressive, egalitarian, open culture that she had been promised when she was hired.

QUESTION

Apply the discrepancy theory of job satisfaction to (a) explain whether Stephanie is likely to be satisfied or dissatisfied with her job, and (b) provide one recommendationto improve her satisfaction. In your answer, you should also discuss how the projection bias could have affected Stephanie's satisfaction with her job in line with discrepancy theory. Use information from the case to support your analysis and make sure you include the word count for your answer.